The present invention concerns the manufacture of electric motors and generators, and similar apparatus. More specifically, the invention relates to improved solutions for placing coils of wire on different sized armatures using a mechanical winding machine.
Electric motors generally include two main partsxe2x80x94a fixed hollow portion and a core that is placed inside of it. In most cases, the fixed portion is known as a xe2x80x9cstatorxe2x80x9d and the core is the portion that rotates inside the stator, called a xe2x80x9crotorxe2x80x9d or an xe2x80x9carmature.xe2x80x9d In a brushless motor, the rotating armature surrounds the fixed stator and rotates around it. The main body core portion typically has slots spaced along its circumference for coiling wire. A commutator provides the electrical connection to the armature. The core and the commutator are mounted in axially spaced relation on a common shaft. The commutator has circumferentially spaced connection points typically known as xe2x80x9ctangsxe2x80x9d to which the starting and ending leads of the wound coils are physically and electrically connected. While tangs are a commonly available type of connection point, it should be noted that other types of connections are also available. For example, slots are sometimes present on the commutator to which the wire leads may be attached. In either case, electricity supplied to the wire interacts with a magnetic field produced in the stator to create the torque required to operate the motor.
Several machines available in the art are capable of coiling wire on slotted cores. These winding machines have at least onexe2x80x94and usually twoxe2x80x94wire applying devices known as xe2x80x9cflyersxe2x80x9d that rotate about an axis normal to that of the core, drawing wire from a source and winding it around the slots to produce a coil with a desired number of turns. When a coil (or set of coils in the case of a double flyer machine) is finished, the flyers stop and the wire leads are brought next to the tangs or other connection points on the commutator to which they will be attached. The core is then rotationally indexed to present the tangs (or other connection points) to the wire hooking devices, and the flyer wraps wire around them. Rotational indexing also brings the next set of slots into position to receive wire from the flyers. Wire winding machines are disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,911,563 to Anderson and in U.S. Pat. No. 5,127,594 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,257,745 both to Lombardi et al. and assigned to the assignee of the present application. The contents of each of the above mentioned references are hereby incorporated by reference for their entire teachings.
While such winders are very effective for properly placing wire around cores, difficulties arise when it is desired to next coil wire around a core that does not have the same dimensions as the previously coiled core. Currently available winding machines require the center of each core to be aligned with a fixed axis in the machine. Since cores that have different dimensions have their centers placed at different locations along the common shaft, it becomes difficult to process different sized cores in succession. The present invention is directed to methods and apparatus for efficiently coiling wire around armature or stator cores that are placed in a winding machine in succession, when such successive cores have different dimensions. The invention can thus be easily and precisely adapted to wind wire coils on cores that have different shaft lengths, commutator dimensions, distances from the commutator to the lamination stack and lamination stack lengths.
According to an aspect of the invention, there is provided an apparatus for winding components that includes a winding system with at least one flyer winder, wherein the winding system is mounted to a support structure. The apparatus also includes a loading device which receives a component from a supply source and transports it a distance along a path to extend it into the winding system, and a transport system which moves the support structure along the path and aligns the component in the winding system at a desired position along the path. The desired alignment position is determined by a dimension of the component.
According to another aspect of the invention, there is provided an apparatus for winding components which includes a winding system with at least one flyer winder, and a loading device which receives an electric motor core from a supply source and transports it a distance along a path to extend it into the winding system to receive a wire coil. The core has at least one tang, and the apparatus also includes a termination device fixed at an end of the path for connecting the wire coil to the tang.
According to yet another aspect of the invention there is provided a method of winding components which includes transporting a component along a path to extend it in a winding system. The winding system is mounted on a support structure, and the method further includes moving the support structure along the path to align the component in the winding system at a desired position. The desired alignment position is determined by a dimension of the component. The method also includes the step of winding wire on at least a portion of the component while the component is extended in the winding system.
The present invention has significant advantages over current armature winding methods and devices. First, it enables a winding machine to coil multiple armatures in succession without requiring extensive adjustments to be made to the machinery each time the dimensions of an armature being coiled vary from those coiled before it. One embodiment of the invention also allows for a single loading distance, regardless of the dimensions of the armature.